Monday, August 20, 2007

Geldof off causing trouble in Libya. Rumours that the rioting started when he gave some of his solo material an airing are grossly exaggerated! Those Libyans have exemplary musical taste :-) . Word to the wise, stick to the Rats material in the future.

No one knows why Geldof was out there for an unannounced concert at a politcal rally for Gadaffi's son. Maybe it was political, maybe just financial. The band almost lost their equipment to boot. I suspect the next time Geldof is back in that part of the world it will be in the Irish pub in the middle of the fucking desert.

... the young people suddenly awoke with the arrival of Bob Geldof, the celebrated rocker and anti-poverty campaigner. Before starting, Geldof suggested the soldiers leave. Things then started to get nasty! The crowd chanted ("Libya! Libya! "), the spectators rained projectiles onto the stage, forcing Geldof and his musicians to wrap things up quickly.

... when Sir Bob Geldof then took to the stage to play a rock concert, talking in the language Libyans had been kept from learning and which they needed most in interacting and trading with the outside world, the crowd protested. Sir Bob tried to calm them, but their contempt grew even stronger. For days after streets were cordoned off in Benghazi, where many young men had been stirred.

What remains difficult to understand, however, is what was Geldof doing there in the first place? Accepting an invitation to play after the dictator's son's speech suggests support of a regime that has oppressed the Libyan people for 38 years.

Sir Bob Geldof's appearance on stage brought all this back; reminded us of what had been taken from us and was now being returned, by the very regime that had imposed this narrow interpretation of who we were, without apology or even an explanation, and in the grotesque form of a pop concert.